Bad Girl Bombshell of the Day: Charisma Carpenter as Cordelia Chase
I recently started re-watching the entire Buffy series. By recently I mean I started in August and am currently somewhere mid-Season 5. Buffy was most definitely the top show of my childhood. I did, however, lose interest around Season 4 when it originally aired, and now I remember why.
Resident super bitch Cordelia, “the most feared girl in Sunnydale history,” moved to LA and teamed up with re-souled vampire/ Buffy ex Angel when he garnered his own self-titled spinoff.
As Buffy creator Joss Whedon once stated, “All of our characters got to the point (in Season 4) where they were loving and hugging, and it was sort of like, where’s Cordelia?”
Not only was Angel much darker than its predecessor, and consequently much more to my liking, but having Charisma Carpenter as a leading lady earns infinite brownie points.
Interesting fact for fans of the Buffyverse (non-Buffy fans stop reading): I once read that the character of Cordelia was often used for plot progression. In other words, rather than having to drag out a long, dry explanation, they would use her innate cattiness and lack of tact to cut a scene that would take five minutes to thirty seconds.
Example from the episode “Killed by Death”:
Cordy: So this isn’t about you (Buffy) being afraid of hospitals ‘cause your friend died and you want to conjure up a monster that you can fight so you can save everybody and not feel so helpless?
Giles: Cordelia, have you actually ever heard of tact?
Cordy: Tact is just not saying true stuff. I’ll pass.
